'Summa-thon'

The Saint Louis University Philosophy Club will host Summa-thon, a marathon reading of the Summa Theolgiae, from 10 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. Monday, Jan. 28, in room 142 of Adorjan Hall. Snacks and refreshments will be available.

After 17 years, SLU's Philosophy Club will complete the marathon reading of the unfinished masterpiece by Thomas Aquinas on the upcoming feast day of the angelic doctor. It will take more than five hours and a hundred-plus readers to complete the final part. Each participant will recite aloud in the language of his or her choice an assigned article from the Summa Theolgiae.

In 1997, SLU's Philosophy Club began the tradition of the Summa-thon. Each year since then on the feast day of the patron of philosophers, SLU students, faculty, staff, administrators and alumni have taken turns, each successively reading aloud an answer - about three minutes apiece throughout the day - from the thousands of questions considered by St. Thomas.

Having worked through questions on God, the angels, human nature, happiness, passions, habits, law, grace, the virtues, vocations and the incarnation, the text concludes with questions on the sacraments. St. Thomas puzzles about the sacred signs set before humanity under the guise of things sensible. After many questions on the Eucharist, the unfinished text leaves off in the middle of articles about penance. Readers at this year's Summa-thon will include some SLU alumni and their children who organized and participated in the original event seventeen years ago.